Aysan seated in a mountain meadow overlooking distant peaks

Aysan Fazelian

Inquiry is my craft.

Enter

I’m an independent ethnographer and documentary storyteller working through commissioned research, fieldwork and collaborative, place-based practice.

I explore how relationships between people, place and the living world are shaped, disrupted, remembered and recovered.

Sunlight moving across moss and branches on a forest floor
My work emerges from grief over ecological and cultural loss and a longing to follow the clues left behind.
Aysan as a child with her grandparents in an apple orchard
My earliest memories begin in an apple orchard in Urmia, West Azerbaijan region, Iran.
Passengers seated inside a tram, with faces blurred
Born in Urmia into an Azerbaijani Turk family, I came to Sweden as a child of political refugees. My own uprootedness opened into a wider question: how does place shape who we become?
Two people walking along a path through a mountain landscape in evening light
In mountains, rivers and forests, I found traces of home.
Tree buds beginning to open
I began looking for ways to remember.
A person walking through a snowy landscape
Observation became a practice. Curiosity, a method. Ethnography, a way of understanding people, place and the relationships between them.
A yellow flower observed at close range
Wonder became a discipline.
Aysan standing beside an old tree in a snowy woodland
Today, my work takes shape through interdisciplinary projects and collaborations spanning:
  • Ecological inquiry
  • Guided place-based journeys
  • Workshops and facilitation
  • Exhibitions
  • Qualitative research and reports

Selected Work

Alexandre Hogue painting depicting eroded land and ecological loss

Ongoing inquiry

The Great Estrangement

How is life in an increasingly digital age reshaping our relationship with the living world, and is there a way back home? Explore ↗ Artwork: Alexandre Hogue
A bee hovering among wild garlic flowers

Long-term field study

Wild Garlic Ground

What happens to a plant community when the relationships that held it in place are suddenly cut down? Explore ↗
A bee inside a pink rhododendron flower

Collaborative short film

Katie's Teachings

What might the natural world teach us about loss, surrender and the cycles we all belong to? View film →
A tea ceremony space prepared in a forest clearing

Practice

The Way of Tea

How might ceremony and ritual invite us into a more attentive relationship with people and place? Explore →

Research & Collaborations

Alongside my independent projects, I work through commissioned research and collaborative practice.

Applied Research

Nike × The Mix

Qualitative youth research exploring wellbeing, identity and mental health.

Collaborative practice

Naturliv ↗

Two years of training in nature-based living and survival skills, currently assisting the Naturliv Family course.

Mountain Medicine ↗

Partner in ceremony and adventure therapy, including nature-based practice and group expeditions.

Current focus

What is taking shape now

01

SALTFOLK

A newly established organisation I co-founded, exploring belonging and relationships with land through ceremony, art, craft and shared cultural practice.

02

Botany & Belonging

An ethnographic project exploring how plant memory is carried across generations through story, practice and lived relationships. Currently developing the field inquiry in Bohuslän.

03

Available for collaboration

Open to commissioned ethnographic research, documentary and field-based storytelling, cultural and ecological projects, and interdisciplinary collaborations.

Visual Field Notes

Bare winter branches forming a canopy overhead
Pine trees reflected in still water
A water droplet held beneath a lichen-covered branch
Rain droplets suspended from fine grass
Growth rings visible across a cut tree trunk
Roots and stones interwoven on the forest floor
Backlit seed head at close range
A dried sunflower head edged with frost
Pale organic forms suspended beneath water
Soft close observation of rust-coloured pine needles
Continue through the field notes →

Contact

Let's work together

For commissions, collaborations, invitations or emerging ideas, get in touch.

aysanfazelian@gmail.com LinkedIn ↗